Monument record 2268 - Ice House at Booths Hall

Ice house at Booths Hall. It is hidden among trees and shrubs on the right hand side of the entrance drive. It is egg-shaped with tunnel entrance and an earth mound over the chamber. There is no public access to the site. The nearest water is at Booths Mere, 350m to the north. For a long time, there were few ways of preserving food other than salting and pickling. From the 17th century, the idea of an Ice house was introduced to large estates. They were structures built to house blocks of ice to prevent them from melting. They were well insulated and partly underground. The ice was obtained from ponds and lakes frozen in the winter months. Sometimes fields were deliberately flooded by farmers to provide extra income.